Carr, Manziel has been working hard to become a pocket passer. He's tough for a guy his size. He rarely looks to run it when the play breaks down, instead he'll extend the play by avoiding linemen and running to the sidelines waiting for a WR to get open. He will *rarely* run it himself this season. He extends and passes to his 2nd and 3rd options in a way he never would have before.

But yes, he needs to work on it even more, or his stay in the NFL will be an injury ridden short one.

Agreed, Manziel works with private QB coach George Whitfield Jr. The numbers of times Manziel has run this season is down substantially from last year. When he does run it is for a first down or positive yardage. I am bowing out of the drinking conversation as I have to admit I have no idea why Farve and Manziel want to drink a beer. My guess is to relax and have fun like most but that is pure guessing, I've never met or spoke to either.

Saints quarterback Drew Brees said Texas A&M redshirt sophomore QB Johnny Manziel will "absolutely" be a starter in the NFL.

"He's got all the playmaking ability to be a great player," Brees said. "[There are] guys like [Manziel] in this league. Russell Wilson and his ability to run the football and extend plays outside the pocket and throw the ball down the field. Intermediate [routes], I mean he can do it all." The 6-foot-1 Manziel is expected to forgo his final two seasons of eligibility and enter the 2014 NFL Draft. "I think the physical qualities are not nearly as important as the psychological qualities of playing the quarterback position," Brees said. "Certainly you have to have some level of throwing ability and fundamentals and that kind of thing. But speed, height, arm strength those things are way overrated when playing the quarterback position."

Carr, Manziel has been working hard to become a pocket passer. He's tough for a guy his size. He rarely looks to run it when the play breaks down, instead he'll extend the play by avoiding linemen and running to the sidelines waiting for a WR to get open. He will *rarely* run it himself this season. He extends and passes to his 2nd and 3rd options in a way he never would have before.

But yes, he needs to work on it even more, or his stay in the NFL will be an injury ridden short one.

I have watched every single game Johnny Football has ever played for Texas A&M and the fact is most of the posters in here don't know what in the hell they are talking about.

Just because a guy is small does not automatically make him injury prone. Case in point, Matt Schaub. That guy has every bit the build you want in an NFL QB yet has had multiple injury plagued seasons. As far as the running is concerned, they'd be right if they were talking about Johnny and his 1400 rushing yards last season. This year, as you pointed out perfectly, he is almost always looking to pass unless it's a designed running play.

As for the character issues, the only reason we even know about any of his "character flaws" is because he won the freaking Heisman Trophy. The guy doesn't do drugs, isn't missing practices for his team, is always ready to play on gameday, and plays as hard as anyone I have ever seen. Yes, he likes to drink and party. Who the hell said his drinking had anything to do with anxiety? The guy is a 20 year old KID that is the most celebrated athlete in all sports. By some of the responses of many of the posters in here, I'd think they'd never drank or partied a day in their lives let alone be a hot shot QB beating up on the best defenses in college football.

The complaints are just asinine. Players like Johnny Football are EXACTLY what the Texans need. People can say what they want, but I guarantee you every single guy on BOTH sides of the field respect the hell out of Johnny Manziel. Can't tell you how many games I have seen guys on the opposite team run out of their way just to go congratulate Johnny Football. No one that plays with him dislikes him or thinks he is a bad teammate. He is the ultimate competitor, THE team leader, and the type of attitude we could use in the Texans locker room.

Saints quarterback Drew Brees said Texas A&M redshirt sophomore QB Johnny Manziel will "absolutely" be a starter in the NFL.

"He's got all the playmaking ability to be a great player," Brees said. "[There are] guys like [Manziel] in this league. Russell Wilson and his ability to run the football and extend plays outside the pocket and throw the ball down the field. Intermediate [routes], I mean he can do it all." The 6-foot-1 Manziel is expected to forgo his final two seasons of eligibility and enter the 2014 NFL Draft. "I think the physical qualities are not nearly as important as the psychological qualities of playing the quarterback position," Brees said. "Certainly you have to have some level of throwing ability and fundamentals and that kind of thing. But speed, height, arm strength those things are way overrated when playing the quarterback position."

It's funny he said the bold. As far as I can tell, Johnny Football has every single one of those qualities. Only thing he doesn't have is height and weight. He is the most elusive athlete I have ever seen, guys rarely get a clean hit on him, he is very fast, and his throwing strength is up there with the best of them in college football. The guy throws an absolutely beautiful deep ball, and I have routinely seen him launch 50-60 yards darts to players many times off balance. His lack of arm strength was only something that got put out there because people hadn't seen him play and assumed because of his size he had a weak arm.

It's funny he said the bold. As far as I can tell, Johnny Football has every single one of those qualities. Only thing he doesn't have is height and weight. He is the most elusive athlete I have ever seen, guys rarely get a clean hit on him, he is very fast, and his throwing strength is up there with the best of them in college football. The guy throws an absolutely beautiful deep ball, and I have routinely seen him launch 50-60 yards darts to players many times off balance. His lack of arm strength was only something that got put out there because people hadn't seen him play and assumed because of his size he had a weak arm.

I haven't seen a lot of Manziel, but what I have seen, the guy does have the skills suceed in the NFl, no doubt. I saw most of the game aginst Alabama and he tore them apart. Not many Qb's in the NCAA can say that. If Keenum doesn't work out and starts regressing, I would be ecstatic if the Texans draft him. But The Texans can't win more than 5 games for that to happen or they are going to have to trade up.

I wouldn't say that Schaub is injury prone or any more so than Cushing, and for the same reason: just really bad luck with injuries. A better example would be a guy like Roethlisberger who is a prototypically-sized QB but is often injured, and even then because his offensive line is so bad.

I do watch a ton of Manziel; now I may not watch every game, but I study the game I watch.

Manziel is a very good QB with great potential.
The negative is that he's more of a gunslinger than Keenum under less pressure.
Take the games against the Tides, for example, he faced about a third and definitely less than half of what Keenum has been seeing in the NFL.
Remember that I always consider 3 seconds or more is on the QB.

His O-line is very stout against college defenders.
This is the main thing I always look for when evaluating QB; how they handle pressure.

When I watched Keenum and Luck against UCLA in the same year.
One guy faced 4 pressures, the other twenty pluses; they came out with comparable results.
You tell me which guy you like better.

Obviously, in Luck's situation, he has the size and the athleticism going for him.
You have to give him that.
If both guys play smart the same, the big guy should be able to hold on to the ball better when he got sacked.
He should be able to throw over the top with less concern of a batted ball.

The smaller guys have to adjust their game to compensate.
Manziel has plenty qualities that makes him a QB, but he has some draw backs, too. It's normal to me; since I didn't knock on Wilson nor Keenum for their size.

The off-the-field stuffs are less obvious.
All I can say is that I was also young once, like some posters on this board.
The yellow flags that we see come from our own humble experience.
Just look at the majority of the successful QBs in the league.

If Johnny Manziel could perform on Reliant Stadium field on Sundays the way he performs on Kyle Field on Saturdays there is no doubt most fans would be all in. The only reason he wouldn't or couldn't would be poor coaching. Johnny Football is a combination of Russell Wilson and Drew Brees. You want to call him a gunslinger, well, so was Bret Farve. Johnny's best games are better than any of today's college QB best game. If it came down to a game winning drive, what college QB hands would you want the football?

How sure am I? I will go out on this limb; Let the games at LSU and Missouri be the judge. He will not disappoint.

If Johnny Manziel could perform on Reliant Stadium field on Sundays the way he performs on Kyle Field on Saturdays there is no doubt most fans would be all in. The only reason he wouldn't or couldn't would be poor coaching. Johnny Football is a combination of Russell Wilson and Drew Brees. You want to call him a gunslinger, well, so was Bret Farve. Johnny's best games are better than any of today's college QB best game. If it came down to a game winning drive, what college QB hands would you want the football?

How sure am I? I will go out on this limb; Let the games at LSU and Missouri be the judge. He will not disappoint.

I don't think Winston will win it. He's played a total of 5.5 games when you look at snap count and quarters played (Florida State is 9-0). We beat teams early and put our backups in. Pretty sure Winston has only finished one game all year.

Winston is still better in passing efficiency, yards per attempt, and quarterback rating. I think Mariota is too actually.

You're talking about completion percentage. I was talking about the passing efficiency described here at sports reference.

Bryce Petty leads the nation in that statistic, followed by Winston, then Manziel.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Stemp

Yes. Wingston is slightly better at 192.2 to 186.9

That's passing efficiency as described above. I was talking about ESPN's QBR.

It has Petty, Mariota, Winston, then Manziel in that order. Top three are within .5 of each other, then Manziel is 4.2 points back of the lowest of the three.

Regardless, they are all playing very well. I was just pointing out that the raw stats of yardage/TDs is slightly skewed for Winston, considering he hasn't been playing in the second half very much. I think that that will hurt his chances. I felt the need to do that considering that article posted says:

Quote:

So Manziel has played much tougher competition and put up much better stats against that tougher competition

I guess it depends on what you consider as relevant and not relevant. Do you penalize players for putting teams away early and sitting out for much if not all of the second half? Does playing less snaps at a higher efficiency hurt you? Is a guy a better player because he has put up more yards and TDs in more snaps in closer games over other guys that are more efficient? Assuming stats are all that matter. National title relevance favors every other Heisman candidate as well.

I could also make a picture just like that that showed QBR and passing efficiency and wouldn't look quite so homer for Aggies, but I don't care enough. Yards per game vs ranked teams is laughable considering FSU smashed the three ranked teams they have played.

Also, don't count out Mariota or Petty. Mariota was having a fantastic year before the Stanford game. He was playing poorly in that game, then got injured. I think he will probably bounce back and get back into it. Petty has an interesting schedule coming up where he could really jump up the Heisman ranks.

I would probably give a bonus to players who have a stronger schedule (or at least penalize players who play weaker ones), but what does it for me W/R/T Manziel vs. Winston is that FSU's defense isn't shabby whereas Manziel often can't catch a break.

The fact that his stats are better on the whole are better is just all the more reason to give it to him.

I would probably give a bonus to players who have a stronger schedule (or at least penalize players who play weaker ones), but what does it for me W/R/T Manziel vs. Winston is that FSU's defense isn't shabby whereas Manziel often can't catch a break.

The fact that his stats are better on the whole are better is just all the more reason to give it to him.

It makes you question what the Heisman trophy is a trophy for. Most valuable player on a championship contender? Best statistical performance? Most efficient player? Most exciting player? Manziel would certainly win most exciting player.

I don't really care too much about trophies like the Heisman. If it were more defined in what exactly constitutes a winner, I would probably be more interested. I like the race overall and award show because you get to see highlights of these guys and get to follow their seasons more easily.

I think all 4 of the guys I have mentioned would be deserving of the award. I actually think McCarron is running 5th right now.

It makes you question what the Heisman trophy is a trophy for? Most valuable player on a championship contender? Best statically performance? Most efficient player?

I don't really care too much about trophies like the Heisman. If it were more defined in what exactly constitutes a winner, I would probably be more interested. I like the race overall and award show because you get to see highlights of these guys and get to follow their seasons more easily.

Meh, I personally see the Heisman as a sort of league MVP for college football. Manziel might not be as important as other players might be for a team with less national recognition, but considering his contributions, his stats, and who he goes up against (lotsa bonus points for his games against Alabama), he deserves the Heisman.

Quote:

I think all 4 of the guys I have mentioned would be deserving of the award. I actually think McCarron is running 5th right now.

Stuff like that is what I'd want to avoid. McCarron is a bit more talented than the last guy they had at QB but he gets way too much success for what his team has accomplished.

I would probably give a bonus to players who have a stronger schedule (or at least penalize players who play weaker ones), but what does it for me W/R/T Manziel vs. Winston is that FSU's defense isn't shabby whereas Manziel often can't catch a break.

The fact that his stats are better on the whole are better is just all the more reason to give it to him.

That goes both ways. Against Wake Forest, FSU defense had 6 interceptions and scored 3 or 4 times. In the first half, the FSU defense scored like 3 times in a row and the offense was barely on the field. That keeps the QB off the field and allows the coach to use his 4 RBs when they do get the ball in a 35-0 game in the 1st quarter. When the defense is allowing teams to score, the QB is going to have more opportunity to pad those stats. So, I don't really see your point, especially if you are going to mostly be looking at statistics.